Need Help. 6906 safety

[6904]

Owned my 6906 for quite a few years now. believe i've done broken or worn my firing pin. so i want to replace it. already purchased it. issue is, i cant figure out how to remove this ambi safety. i know once thats off the pin should slide out so i can drop in the new one. but i cant get the safety removed.

anyone know how to do this?

I replace pins on my beretta's and glocks regularly so im skilled enough to do it. just dont know the method of removing this.

any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Tracer_Bullet]

I recommend safety glasses as there are a couple of spring loaded parts that might try to fly away:
In the safety lever on the right side (looking at the gun from the rear) there should be a hole on the right side of the lever, use a small punch to depress the plunger that is in this hole and then slide the safety lever off. Flip the side over so you are looking at the bottom of the slide from the rear, you will see two plungers near the rear of the slide, the one on your left is the firing pin safety plunger. Press the firing pin plunger in and press the firing pin forward so that it clears the safety assembly (it may get caught by the firing pin safety plunger and not return to the rear, pressing the plunger again will free it up). You can then jiggle the safety assembly out. You might want to do this in a large plastic bag as there is a small spring loaded plunger in the safety assembly that might try to escape. Once the safety assembly is out of the way, cover the rear of the firing pin so it doesn't go flying and depress the firing pin safety plunger again. It should come right out.
Reassembly is the reverse, you have to press the plunger on the safety assembly back in when you reinsert the safety assembly into the slide, while keeping the firing pin pressed forward out of the way.
Believe it or not, it is possible to do all this with only two hands, but it sure isn't fun
I'm going from memory since I don't have a 3rd gen in front of me right now, so if I missed something hopefully someone else will chime in, and I hope my directions are clear enough to follow. If you have any doubts about doing this, take the gun to a gunsmith and pay a few bucks to have him do it for you.

 

[6904]

sadly i believe im going to have to go to a gunsmith. i attempted this, got the right side safety lever off. had the pin fully forward and locked, then the safety assembly wouldnt come out at all. just locked up 1/2 way, then my firing pin got stuck haha. got it all back together. but ........alas now i must find a gunsmith in my area who isnt drunk! oh what fun lol

 

[Tracer_Bullet]

It is kind of a bugger to get the safety assembly to come out. About the only thing worse, in my opinion, is trying to get the trigger bar and it's little plunger back in place...

 

[6904]

i cant get it out no matter what i do, seems like there is a plunger inside the left side safety switch that is like a pressure rig so it doesnt turn itself on and off, that seems to be what it is hanging up on, i even covered the disasembled side with a thick cloth and whacked it with a hammer. still wont come out, no matter which way i twist, turn pull, shimmy, shake , whack , scream at, call names...........it dislikes me very much haha

 

[Fastbolt]

You don't have to hit anything with a hammer when removing the manual safety assembly.

I strongly recommend you find a gunsmith familiar with S&W TDA guns and let him slip it out. And do the replacement for you.

For educational & trivia purpose ... and to satisfy your curiosity ... I'll offer a couple of explanatory comments about part of the removal process ... (not as a "how to" explanation) ...

Once the firing pin has been pushed far forward and has been captured by the safety plunger in the forward position (and remains there during the process until you're ready to actually remove the firing pin) ... and the safety assembly has been pushed partway out of the slide ... the firing pin still has to be pushed a little bit further forward so it clears the inside of the manual safety and the assembly can be removed from the slide (typically a very thin pin punch is inserted inside the rear of the manual safety to do this (to push against the rear of the firing pin), and is removed as the assembly clears the rear of the firing pin - and the punch bottoms out against the slide - so the assembly can be fully pushed free of the slide.

The spot where the safety plunger captures and holds the firing pin isn't quite far enough forward to completely clear the inside of the manual safety assembly. That's why the extra forward push is needed at one point to completely clear the firing pin from the assembly. I knew one armorer who would use forceps to capture the firing pin outside the breech face, after the firing pin was pushed completely forward (farther than needed to be captured by the safety plunger). That let him just push the manual safety assembly out of the slide. I never adopted that practice because I didn't want to risk scratching the firing pin with steel forceps, and I acquired the knack of using the thin pin punch to finish the task as taught in the armorer class.

As the assembly clears the slide, though, the body plunger may decide to fly free (hence the safety glasses recommendation). I use a finger tip to capture the plunger as the safety assembly clears the left side of the slide at that point.

BTW, it's VERY, VERY important that the ambi safety lever plunger & its spring DO NOT get switched with the manual safety body plunger & its spring. Really.

There's some other minor tips & tricks that are involved with the whole process, but I'm not posting this as a "how to", but to give you an idea of how it's seldom wise to proceed with "working" on a gun unless you know what you're doing and have some experience. (I've seen some less experienced armorers who had been through classes, but just never acquired much in the way of "bench time", and who damaged, or almost damaged, parts trying to work on something when they'd forgotten much of what they'd originally been taught.)

Just out of curiosity, why do you feel you've worn out a firing pin spring? Are you experiencing excessive firing pin wipe? If it were me, I'd be more concerned about having replaced the recoil & mag springs every 5 years or 5,000 rounds (I did it a bit sooner in the compact 6906 when I carried a couple of them throughout my career, as well as in my 3913).

I was taught to replace a firing pin spring if it became so short that the tip of the firing pin extended past the spring when the spring was fully on the pin (outside the gun, holding it up), or the gun exhibited signs of a damaged/worn spring. I can't think of more than maybe a couple of firing pin springs I've seen actually damaged/broken, and can't think of any that exhibited signs of being "worn out" ... although I've seen more than my fair share of them gunked up because folks used excessive amounts of solvents and lubricants around the slide openings to the firing pin channel (front breech face hole, plungers on bottom of slide, bottom of the manual safety assembly and the rear of the firing pin).

Find yourself a gunsmith who knows his way around S&W TDA guns.

 

[6904]

im experienced enough haha ;-) *glock armorer* and i've switched it now, i did not notice the pin was not far enough forward to clear the assembly, and thats what was hanging it up. turns out the pin was either worn down or just gunked up, and was not contacting the primer with enough force to actually ignite it. so i replaced the spring and pin, and now she pops em off like an assembly line.

i ended up taking some needle nose and while the gun was stripped, i took hold of the pin and pulled it out more, then wiggled the safety assembly and it came right out, did it inside a plastic bag, *gald i did because the plunger inside the safety sailed off into the bag the second it came out* was also able to fully clean 6 years of fouling and sludge out of the safety mechanism and firing in housing, also behind/inside the ejector assembly.

funny how attention to detail can railroad a small removal though, firing pin was about a mm short of clearing the assembly and i thank you for the advice, all the gunsmiths around here are not really known for quality work, and im very anal about my firearms and who works on them *usually only me, that way if it breaks i can only blame myself*

but its all spiffy now. and working like it should :-D

 

[Tracer_Bullet]

6904, glad you got everything taken care of. I haven't been on the board in a few days or had a chance to take one of mine apart to see what I was missing.

Fastbolt, thanks for filling in the gaps in my memory.

 

[Fastbolt]

Glad it worked out. I take it you figured out to depress the firing pin safety plunger to remove, and later reinstall, the firing pin & spring.

Light strikes caused by gunked up firing pin channels aren't uncommon when owners/users expose that area to excessive and unnecessary amounts of CLP's, solvents or lubricants.

Another area some folks seem inclined to expose to excessive amounts of liquids is the extractor recess, either on the outside (side of the slide) or down in the right side cutout next to the pickup rail. If you look up under this spot you can see a narrow machined cut. This cut is on the bottom of the extractor recess.

I'll sometimes use an air compressor to direct air up under the slide, into the narrow slot, to blow any liquids out of the extractor recess. The liquids will flow out around the extractor on the outside of the slide.

Preventing excessive liquids from entering those spots, and eventually congealing with fouling, grit or other debris, can help prevent some functioning issues over time.

 

[6904]

yeah. was definately dirty. i've had it for 6 years. use minimal lube, but it was a gift given to me on my 18th birthday by a local LEO i know. he carried it almost 10 years. so 16+ years of buildup made her not go bang at all. but now she works like a clock. and im back to carrying her daily

 

[Fastbolt]

As long as by "minimal lube" you mean adequate lubrication. The alloy-framed S&W's need the rails wet enough to provide protection from friction & wear during cycling.

16+ years of use (especially if those first 10 years were in the hands of a cop ) could easily allow the accumulation of excessive solvent or lubricant to migrate into the firing pin channel if it was allowed to run into that area from the firing pin in the breech face, the rear of the firing pin, up under the manual safety body or around the slide plungers. I see lots of cops holding their slides muzzle up to brush the breech face ... and using excessive amounts of solvents/CLP's while doing so ... which allows liquids to follow gravity into the firing pin hole and down inside the firing pin channel. Best to hold the slide "muzzle down" while brushing to help prevent this problem.

Not all S&W firing pins are identical, either, so care must be taken when replacing them to make sure the right one is being used. Aside from some caliber differences, the 3rd gen firing pins have the machined relief for the firing pin safety plunger, for example.